The Treasures of the Deep

The Royal Charter in Dulas bay
One of 200 lost that day
Miners’ pockets filled with gold
Dragged them down to the ocean cold
They’re down… downed and drowned…
Downed and drowned and never found…

Upon swimming out of the cave, your eyes quickly adjust to the darkness of the waters, letting you intake the full extent of your home down on the ocean floor.

In front of you lies around a dozen or so wooden ships of various size and origin, all sunk to the bottom of the deep. Each one in a different state of disrepair, some so broken that the stern was fathoms away from the bow. Rotting timbers stood like a bleak parody of the forests above, and the only signs of life were the silhouettes of the fish that eked out a home in the rotting corpses of these once proud sailing vessels. That is if you were to ignore your brethren, who were more a perversion of life rather than signs of it existing.

It wasn’t much. But it was home.

Bisecting the corpses of these ships was a small pathway of lightly colored silt, at least in comparison to the rest of the silt in The Galleon’s Graveyard. You knew that adventures followed said path from wherever they came from to your area, and usually some of the fish would give you ample warning of the approach of any adventures long before they were in sight. But it looked like the coast was clear, at least for now. Otherwise your fellow undead would not be swimming nearly as carefree as they were.

Speaking of, you looked around at them and took a quick stock as your memory slowly repaired itself from this most recent update. Some adventures that you had managed to eke out more than two words of dialogue always said it was odd that you guys didn’t have names. After all, you were alive once. Why not use your names from your previous life?

Well, first off: those names belonged to the living, not the shadows of their remains. Whoever you were in life would probably not want his name tarnished by your existence, so it was best to keep that name away from yourself. Second… you all really had no use for names. All you and your fellow drowned were when you got down to it was a bunch of XP bundles for adventures to kill. Combined that with the constant memory wipes from updates and there never seemed to be a good reason to have a name. Why bother coming up with one if you were going to die 10 times before sundown and might not even remember your face if an update comes out during the 9th ****?

But maybe one day, when you had better hopes for surviving for more than half a day, you would come up with a name for yourself. When it felt earned.

You slowly swim over towards one of the shipwrecks, an old caravel whose starboard was long since lost. You pass by a small school of saltwater snapjaws which, thankfully, pay you no mind as they continue swimming lazily through the water. The tiny fish may seem unassuming, but with a maw full of razor sharp teeth and a bloodlust that was almost never quenched, the creatures were almost as terrifying as the most deadly of krakens.

Or at least they would be if they managed to get the drop on a single adventurer. But seeing as the adventurers who came down here were always in a party, they were usually never much more than time wasters.

Then again, the same could be said for you. Sure you had a good amount of physical resistance and an immunity to poison, but you also happened to be extremely **** to magic of any kind. And seeing as your main defense against melee attacks was to shift into a form where you would take extra magic damage, you tended to get picked off by spell casters super easily.

Oh yeah, and there was the added fact that in order to even get down to The Galleon’s Graveyard in the first place, the adventurers had to have a spell caster with them who could allow them to breathe in the icy depths.

So… the deck was ever so slightly stacked against you and your fellow undersea denizens. It honestly felt like the gods made it this way on purpose just to torment you all. Create an area that spawned random rare treasures, make it accessible only to a party of adventures with at least spellcaster and then fill the area with creatures weak to spellcasters and group fights.

Well, it could also just be really bad luck on your part. But blaming the gods at least assigned the blame on something rather than just saying “whoops! You’re unlucky there, boyo!”

You shake off these thoughts as you get to the rotting deck of the caravel, apparently named San Jose. The name doesn’t strike any memories within you, so you assume it wasn’t the ship that brought you down here. You look around at what remains of the ship, seeing rotten boards and kelp plants making up most of the floor of the ship. A skeleton lies over to one side, his boney gaze staring forever at the wrecks around him.

Then, just as you were about to swim off to another wreck, the glint of something caught your eye. The slight shine and shimmer of something that… shouldn’t be there. Or at least wasn’t there the dozen of other times you swam past this wreck.

You turn to look back at the skeleton, and notice that there is something resting in his left hand. His right hand is curled around the railing of the ship’s bow, desperately trying to hold on even in ****. But in his left you see… a black orb? Maybe?

You swim over to him, reaching down and plucking the strange object from the dead man. His **** grip relents, his hand falling to pieces as you take the item from it. Looking closer at it you can see that it is some kind of jewel that happens to be as black as the darkest depths of the sea. Actually, scratch that, it was darker than even the sea, as it seems to drain what little light makes it down to The Galleon’s Graveyard. As you turn it over in your hand, a pop up appears in your view.

The Black Pearl
Treasure, Legendary
Once owned by a legendary king, this pearl was cursed by a warlock who’s daughter the king had taken to bed. Since that day, The Black Pearl has switched hands countless times, always bringing terrible misfortune to the living who hold it. Oddly enough, the pearl imparts the opposite to those who have already died, bringing good tidings to all who have managed to conquer **** in one fashion or another.

Well. That was… something.

Now you know for a fact this pearl was never here before today. You would have seen it or, at the very least, someone would have mentioned a legendary pearl who could bring any of you drowned good luck just sitting in some dead bloke’s hands. This told you two things. First off, this was probably one of the luckiest treasure spawnings for you, as this one actually could help you if you managed to keep it out of adventurer’s hands.

Two, and a bit more importantly, there were going to be a party of adventurers coming down here very soon to take this from you.

You quickly stuff the pearl away into the pocket of your pants, swimming away from San Jose and towards the direction where adventures usually come from. If they were coming soon, you would need to figure out how many there were and if you even had a chance at beating them, or if it would be better to just try and run and keep this little pearl for yourself till you got enough good luck to help you beat them.

Just as you pass another ship, this one called The ****, another item catches your attention. This one isn’t held by a dead man, but rather is an odd looking blade stuck in the rotten deck of the ship. You quickly change your swimming course, and pluck the blade from the dead boards of the ship. Again, as you pick up the item, another pop up fills your vision.

Shark’s Fang Blade
Weapon, Uncommon
Built from the teeth of the most fierce underwater predators, this blade utilizes their deadly fangs to cause bleeding on those it manages to slice into.
+20% crit chance
Causes Bleeding status on hit
Doubles Bleed damage on crit

Now THAT’S some luck! A new sword to replace your old rusted cutlass, and one that was made to draw the blood of those stinking adventures?! Looks like the luck of The Black Pearl was already getting to work making this battle winnable.

And speaking of the battle… you look out into the inky depths and see a small light making its way towards the graveyard. You can feel the presence of your fellow drowned all itching for a fight, something that all of you yearned for whenever an adventurer drew near.

But this time… You look over to a small school of snapjaws.